Clear Over Clever: Why "Sounding Smart" is Costing You Clients
It’s 2:00 PM. You’re standing in the school pick-up line, or maybe you are nursing a baby who refuses to nap. You have a lukewarm coffee in the cup holder and exactly four minutes of peace before chaos erupts again. You pull out your phone to look for a service provider, maybe a photographer or a web designer.
You land on a website. The photos are beautiful, but the text is… poetic. It talks about "elevated visual storytelling" and "authentic soul-aligned journeys."
You squint. You scroll. You sigh. And then you close the tab.
Why? Because you didn’t have the brainpower to decode it.
If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. This is the exact reality for most of your clients. They are tired, they are busy, and they are scrolling with one hand. Yet, as a Creative Entrepreneur, we often fall into the trap of writing copy that sounds impressive to our peers but is completely unintelligible to the people trying to pay us.
In our recent Breakroom peer mastermind, we dug deep into this issue. Perfectly summarized during the call as "Complexity makes you sound smart, but simple sells."
Here is why your "fancy" copy might be costing you clients, and how to fix it without losing your brand’s voice.
Stop Burning Their "Mental Calories"
During our peer mastermind, member Kendra Ashton (@kendraashtonphotography) introduced the concept of "High Cognitive Load" (from this pod).
Think of cognitive load like "mental calories." Every human wakes up with a limited amount of mental energy. Every decision they make, what to wear, what to feed the kids, which email to answer first, burns those calories.
When a potential client lands on your website, you want them to spend their remaining energy on one specific action: clicking the "Book Now" button. You do not want them burning energy trying to figure out what you actually do.
Kendra shared a perfect example of this. She described seeing a clothing brand with the tagline "Style with Purpose."Sounds nice, right? But it forced her to ask, "Okay, but where can I get the sweater?"
Compare that to a brand that just says, "We sell high-quality wool sweaters."
The first one is "clever." It feels high-end. But it forces the user to do the work. The second one is clear. It respects the user's mental energy.
The Lesson: Clarity is kindness. Do not make flexibility or vague "vibes" a gift to your client. It’s actually a burden. If they have to click three times to find out if you are a wedding photographer or a brand photographer, you have already lost them.
The "6th Grade" Rule & The All-Caps Trap
We often write complicated copy because we are afraid of sounding "basic." We worry that if we write at a 6th-grade reading level, we won’t look like experts.
Writing for a 6th-grade reading level isn't about "dumbing it down." It is about accessibility. It is about realizing that your client is skimming your site on a 6-inch iPhone screen while half-listening to a podcast.
During the call, we reviewed a sales page that had great copy but all the headings were written almost entirely in ALL CAPS.
While it might look aesthetically pleasing in a design mockup, the data tells a different story. Studies in the legibility of newspaper headlines found “that all capitals retarded reading by 18.9%” (source p270).
Why? Because when we read lowercase text, our brains recognize the "shape" of the words (the ascenders like 'h' and descenders like 'g'). When text is in ALL CAPS, every word is just a rectangle. Your brain has to work harder to process it, which stops the "skim" dead in its tracks.
The Fix:
- Ditch the Caps: Keep your body copy in sentence case. It allows the eye to glide across the page.
- Use the "Bolding" Strategy: This tip came from Ellie (eleanor elaine photo). She suggested bolding the most important phrases in your paragraphs.
- How to Test: If a client only reads the bolded text on your page, would they still understand what you sell? If not, you need to rewrite it.
Your Website Is Your Best Employee (So Train It Well)
If you hired a salesperson to stand in your shop, and every time a customer asked, "How much is this?", the salesperson recited a poem about "investing in memories," you would fire them.
Your website is your best employee. It is the only one working 24/7. It works while you are sleeping, while you are on vacation, and while you are playing with your kids.
But for it to do its job, it needs to be direct.
Courtney (little creative company) pointed out a common trap many of us fall into: generic headlines. Phrases like "Websites that convert" or "Capturing your legacy" are so overused that they have become invisible wallpaper. Every copywriter claims their words convert. Every photographer claims to capture legacies.
To make your "digital employee" effective, you need to be specific.
- Instead of "Websites that convert," try "I write sales pages for creative entrepreneurs that double their booking rates."
- Instead of "Elevated imagery," try "Bright, editorial photography for brands who want to get published."
Confidence Is Credibility
Why do we cling to these complex words? Why do we say "curated" instead of "picked," or "utilize" instead of "use"?
Usually, it is imposter syndrome. We feel that if we use simple words, clients will think we are inexperienced. We try to use complexity to mask our own insecurities.
But as Kendra brilliantly put it: "Confidence is credibility."
You do not need a thesaurus to prove you are worth your rates. Your portfolio does that. Your testimonials do that.
Kendra shared the story of a photographer in Ireland. He was shooting weddings but was burnt out and missing his family. One night, he decided he didn't want to shoot big weddings anymore; he only wanted to shoot elopements. He didn't write a long blog post apologizing for the pivot. He didn't say, "I'm trying to get into elopements."
He simply changed his website title to "Elopement Photographer."
He woke up the next day, acted like an expert, and the market treated him like one. He didn't need flowery language to justify the shift. He just owned the label.
The "Sister Test" (Your Action Step)
How do you know if your website is suffering from "High Cognitive Load"? You need to get out of your own echo chamber.
We creative entrepreneurs love to ask other creatives for feedback. But other creatives "speak the language." They know what "alignment" and "optimization" mean.
You need to do The Sister Test.
Here is your homework:
- Take your website URL or your latest Instagram caption.
- Send it to your sister, your mom, or a friend who is not in the industry.
- Ask them two questions:
- "What do I sell?"
- "How do you buy it?"
If they can’t answer those questions in under 5 seconds, you are being too clever.
Simplicity isn't boring. Simplicity is profitable. It’s the difference between a client feeling confused and a client feeling relief. And in a world where everyone is overwhelmed, being the source of relief is the best branding strategy you can have.
Want a safe space to "Sister Test" your website before you launch it to the world?
That’s exactly what we do in The Breakroom. It’s our community for Creative Entrepreneurs who want honest feedback, actionable advice, and a place to grow without the hustle. Join us for our next peer mastermind, and let’s get your messaging clear, simple, and sold.